How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

182 t He tang Dy na s t y

C 9. 1

The Qu River, No. 2

Returning from court, day after day I pawn my spring robes;

2 each day by the lakeside I drink my limit, and only then go home.

Wine debts, everywhere I go, are common;

4 life spans reaching seventy, from ancient times, are few.

A flower-weaving butterfly, deep within, appears;

6 a water-dabbling dragonfly, slow and placid, flies.

Pass word to these fine scenes, to linger and roam together:

8 “Let’s enjoy each other for a short while, and not part company.”

[QTS 7:225.2410]

曲江其二 (qū jiāng qí èr)

court return day by day — pawn spring robe 朝回日日典春衣 (cháo huí rì rì diăn chūn yī)
each day river (-side) complete drunk return 每日江頭盡醉歸 (mĕi rì jiāng tóu jìn zuì guī)
wine debt ordinary — walk place exist 酒債尋常行處有 (jiŭ zhài xún cháng xíng chù yŏu)
human life seventy — antiquity (since) few 人生七十古來稀 (rén shēng qī shí gŭ lái xī)
weave flower butterfly — deeply — appear 穿花蛺蝶深深見 (chuān huā jiá dié shēn shēn xiàn)
touch water dragonfly — slowly — fly 點水蜻蜒款款飛 (diăn shuĭ qīng tíng kuăn kuăn fēi)
pass speech wind light together flow revolve 傳語風光共流轉 (chuán yŭ fēng guāng gòng liú zhuăn)
brief time each other esteem do not each other part 暫時相賞莫相違 (zàn shí xiāng shăng mò xiāng wéi)
[Tonal pattern Ia, see p. 172]

In “The Qu River, No. 2” we recognize tonal pattern Ia (chap. 8)—that is, a slight

modification of type I to allow for a rhyming first line (as indicated, in the table, by

the hollow triangular rhyme marker △).1 Deviation from the expected tonal cate-

gory (as indicated by X) is always permissible in the first syllable in the hepta-

syllabic regulated line, and is usually permissible in the third syllable (that is, the

position corresponding to the first syllable of the pentasyllabic line).2 Thus the only

deviations from the expected category that need comment are those appearing in

the fifth and sixth syllables of line 7. The level tone in the sixth syllable is felt to

“correct” the preceding oblique tone. This particular modification of the fifth and

sixth syllables of the type III line is quite common, particularly in a poem’s pen-

ultimate line.

“The Qu River” is one of Du Fu’s earlier efforts in the form (at least among

those that have come down to us), dating from his brief stint as a court official in

758. Yet already we glimpse the juxtaposition of dazzling technical craft with the
     elusive ironies of the poet’s self-depiction that continued and intensified in his
     later work. The Qujiang (winding river) was in fact a lake, surrounded by a park,
     at the southeastern corner of the Tang capital Chang’an; it was a favorite spot for
     outings among the capital elite. The poet presents himself in an attitude of studied
     casualness, and the tone oscillates between delighted absorption in the natural